An insider's guide to Northwestern Law and its admissions process

Category Archives: FAQs

The second annual Law Admissions Workshop Series (LAWS) is kicking off later this month. LAWS brings together the Deans of Admissions from the top law schools in the U.S. to discuss the law school admissions process, career opportunities for law graduates, and more generally the state of legal education today.

This year, LAWS events will take place in five major cities throughout the country:

Tyler Roth is the president of StudentSpace, a free housing service available to all Northwestern Law students as well as other graduate and professional students across the city. He was kind enough to sit down with our office to tell us more about the StudentSpace organization in addition to what services it can provide incoming and current students at the law school.

So tell us a little about yourself and StudentSpace.

StudentSpace was founded by a Northwestern JD/MBA student who saw a need for a housing service for graduate students here in Chicago. I took over operations of StudentSpace in 2009 when the business was only catering to Northwestern Law students. Since then, the organization has grown to provide housing options for most of the graduate programs located within the city. However, Northwestern Law is still one of our business’ closest relationships and one of our strongest advocates.

StudentSpace is geared specifically towards finding housing options for graduate and professional students coming to school in Chicago. Most of the students that we help come from out of state, and about half of those students are international. We help students, their parents, and their families with the apartment search.

How does the process work?

First, a student makes contact with us through our email address (info@student-space.com) or by making an appointment. Next, we go over all of the criteria that the student is looking for in their housing search. This can include budget, location, safety, pets, laundry, amenities, and the like. Then, we take the student on a tour of the housing options that fit their criteria, and we find a place that works perfectly for them.

For international students or other students who cannot make the trip in person, we can also provide all of our services remotely. We speak with the student through email, over the phone, or on Skype to obtain their housing criteria. Then, StudentSpace scouts all available housing, brings back options for the student to choose from, and walks them through the entire process. We have had a lot of positive feedback from students who have chosen housing through this option and we are available to answer questions from any student who is thinking about using StudentSpace remotely. It is a very simple process.

But is it really free for students?

Yes! The service is really free for all of the students who use StudentSpace. There are no hidden fees or other costs that the students will get surprised by later. Whether the student uses our services or does it on their own, the entire process (most importantly the rent they are charged) is NOT affected so using us can only improve their situation. Buildings love our clients as they’re generally a more mature tenant. We have a phenomenal rapport with buildings all over the city. They are always sending us updates so if they’re offering any student specials, we know about it.

Lately, we’ve heard from many prospective and current applicants about the possibility of interviewing. They go to our calendar and find only gray-ed out days, or they’ve submitted an application with the hopes of scheduling an interview later, only to find nothing available day after day. We know this has been frustrating. With this post, we’re hoping to clear up some confusion around our interview process, as it currently exists.

During the fall, we were able to offer an abundance of on-campus, Skype, and alumni off-campus interviews. As the cycle progressed, these interviews were quickly filled. While we think interviews are a crucial, if optional, part of our law school application, we also have limited resources. We only have so much time during the day to offer interviews; and, unfortunately, we have a limited number of staff, student, and alumni interviewers at our disposal.

At this point, we plan to add a few additional on-campus interview appointments during the months of January and February. Our dedicated and enthusiastic student interviewers will conduct these additional interviews. These appointments will appear on the calendar in the middle of January, once our students return to campus. After this point, it is unlikely more interviews will appear in January or February.

In the meantime, here are some alternatives to keep in mind:

When reviewing applications, should an Admissions Committee member have any pressing questions, they may reach out to an applicant directly to set up a time to speak.

When submitting your application, feel free to check the “No, I do not wish to interview” box. If you did actually want to interview but were unable to find an available interview appointment, we encourage you to submit an addendum explaining the situation. You can even take the time to point out relevant information that may have come up during your interview.

You can also submit the optional essay that indicates why specifically you are interested in Northwestern Law. This will provide the Admissions Committee with additional insight into your motivations for law school, and more specifically why you want to attend Northwestern Law.

Sometimes people cancel their interviews and something becomes available at the last minute. Cancellations are typically processed at 9:00 a.m. CST Monday through Friday. Feel free to check the calendar at that point to see if anything has recently opened up.

While we are always happy to answer your questions over the phone, through email, or in person, we can’t magically provide you with an interview. What’s on our calendar is the most up-to-date information.

Unfortunately, due to such high interest, we just can’t meet the demand for our interview program this year. But, we are thrilled that so many of you have taken the time to learn about the process and tried to have one. We hope at least one of our suggested alternative solutions will work for you!

Last Tuesday, we had a great virtual town hall meeting with Dean Rodriguez. If you weren’t able to join us, you can find a transcript of the chat on our website. During the chat we received a number of admissions-specific questions. Because Dean Rodriguez is not involved in the minutiae of processing applications (that’s why he has our office!), we decided to set those questions aside and answer them on the blog. Find answers to our leftover but no less important questions below.

Like this:

Earlier in the year we talked about the fee waiver we were offering to anyone who applied by November 30, 2014. That date has come and gone, and we are now no longer offering a blanket waiver. However, it is still possible to have your application fee waived.